- Albanians protest over Kushner-linked luxury resort on pristine coastline
Source: Reuters
“Thousands of Albanians took to the streets of Tirana on Tuesday night protesting against a development planned by a company linked with Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on an environmentally sensitive part of the Adriatic coast. The €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) resort is being led by Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners on an island off Albania and an undeveloped stretch of coastline near the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape, a wetland home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites. … Protests by locals and non-profit organisations started after large barbed wire fences were erected by developers at the proposed site in Zvernec, near Vlora. Several hundred gathered and clashed with private guards on Saturday and some were injured, a Reuters witness said.” (06/03/26)
- Source: Santos reported to prosecutors over suspicious Kalshi trades
Source: Associated Press
“A prediction market reported U.S. Rep. George Santos to federal prosecutors after he boasted he’d be going to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, then bet against his own attendance, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Kalshi, the online prediction marketplace, referred Santos to the Department of Justice after detecting suspicious trades made by the former congressman ahead of Trump’s Feb. 24 speech, the person said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Kalshi also reported the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal regulatory body that has vowed to crack down on insider trading in prediction marketplaces.” (06/03/26)
https://apnews.com/article/george-santos-kalshi-2ea925949a0f3f72ec46411b41344858
- Thailand: Thaksin gets royal pardon after release on parole
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Thailand’s divisive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was freed from parole on Wednesday after receiving a royal pardon from King Maha Vajiralongkorn, as the 76-year-old billionaire businessman’s plans remain unclear. Thaksin, who stood at the heart of a two-decade power struggle with rival sections of the Thai elite, served eight months of a one-year jail term for corruption and abuse of power. He was released from jail early last month due to his advancing age, with his term originally set to end by September. A royal decree pardoning him at the king’s discretion became effective on Wednesday, the birthday of Queen Suthida. Royal birthdays and other symbolic dates are often marked with pardons of jailed prisoners.” (06/03/26)
- FL: Legislature approves property tax cut proposal for November ballot
Source: WPTV News
“Florida lawmakers on Tuesday passed a property tax cut proposal that would create a $250,000 homestead exemption, securing it on the November ballot. On the second day of the special session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Senate passed House Joint Resolution (HJR) 1-F, creating a $250,000 homestead exemption on non-school levies for homeowners. The Joint Resolution proposes a constitutional amendment to increase the current exemption for owner-occupied homestead property to $250,000 over two years and creates a framework for full exemption over time. The amendment will appear on the November 2026 General Election Ballot for approval by Florida voters.” [editor’s note: The current homestead exemption, not increased since 2008, is $50,000 – TLK] (06/02/26)
- Hungary: Regime Moves to Abolish Orban-Era Sovereignty Protection Office
Source: US News & World Report
“Hungary’s governing Tisza party has submitted a bill to parliament to abolish an organisation set up by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government that stigmatized opposition figures and journalists for serving ‘foreign interests.’ The SPO was created in 2023 to monitor risks of what Orban’s then-governing Fidesz party described as ‘undue political interference’ by foreign entities. However, critics said it was a tool to suppress dissent, and the European Commission launched an infringement procedure targeting the law behind the agency’s creation.” (06/03/26)
- CBS fires Pelley for venting over Weiss train wreck
Source: CNN
“CBS News fired veteran ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, one day after he sharply criticized the newsmagazine’s new leadership in front of the staff. CBS said Pelley was terminated for cause, and industry analysts immediately predicted that Pelley might take legal action against the network. The firing is sure to trigger even more scrutiny of CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss and her controversial efforts to overhaul the network news division.” (06/02/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/02/media/scott-pelley-60-minutes-cbs-meeting-bari-weiss-cibrowski-bilton
- Big Government Is Why Politics Keeps Getting More Extreme
Source: The Daily Economy
by Ryan Yonk & Thomas Savidge“James Buchanan’s Public Choice framework helps explain why political conflict intensifies and rhetoric becomes more divisive as government power grows.” (06/03/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/big-government-is-why-politics-keeps-getting-more-extreme/
- Data Centers Can Bring Their Own Tax Cuts
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes“Google just announced plans to build a $15 billion data center in Montgomery County, in east–central Missouri. It remains to be seen how much of that investment will be reflected in property tax totals, but since the largest expense is going to be for the very expensive equipment in the data center itself — and that equipment is taxable — we can safely assume the assessed valuation of the final project will be enormous and almost certainly measured in the billions. This for a county that had an entire assessed valuation in 2025 of $315 million. Again, that’s every farm, house, car, tractor, building, boat, and cow in the county. … What do you think happens when you add huge assessed valuations from businesses that don’t add much to the public service requirements? The answer should be tax cuts, which is exactly what happened in Loudon County, Virginia.” (06/03/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/corporate-welfare/data-centers-can-bring-their-own-tax-cuts/
- “Terror” as Technique in American Policymaking
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Matt Wolfson“In a speech delivered in the autumn of 2002, as the United States moved inexorably toward war with Iraq, the late Joan Didion delivered an offhand remark that effectively summed up the flaw at the heart of the logic behind that coming war, and of the logic of a number of wars before it, and of a number of wars to come. Referring to ‘the ‘war on terror’ that the President had declared’ of which the operation against Iraq was the centerpiece, Didion added a parenthetical critique: ‘… as if terror were a state and not a technique.’ Twenty-three and a half years later, we live in the detritus of a general lack of understanding of precisely that point.” (06/03/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/terror-as-technique-in-american-policymaking
- Russia’s Warnings Signal Danger of Widening War
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider“he United States and Russia have agreed on little in the war in Ukraine. The one thing they have agreed on is the existential necessity of avoiding a direct war between NATO and Russia, which could become a third world war or even a nuclear war. … The possibility of that caution failing is now at perhaps the highest level it has been at any time of the war. One flashpoint for a wider war is the Baltic states, while another is actually inside Ukraine, in the capital Kiev, which hosts American and European diplomats and military officers.” (06/03/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/russias-warnings-signal-danger-of-widening-war/
- Warsh’s Concerning Interest in Redefining “Inflation”
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
Connor O’Keeffe“As Kevin Warsh takes over as chair of the Federal Reserve, investors and financial media outlets are looking closely for any hints at how his appointment will impact monetary policy. One series of comments Warsh made while testifying to Congress back in April as a nominee has been getting more attention in recent weeks, following some high inflation reports. Essentially, Warsh signaled that he believed in focusing primarily on inflation data from core or even trimmed price indexes. To understand what that means or why it matters, it’s important to note that, originally, ‘inflation’ was a term that simply meant the act of increasing, or inflating, the money supply.” (06/03/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/warshs-concerning-interest-redefining-inflation
- Charles Augustus Leale, Abraham Lincoln, and the Physician We Are Slowly Losing
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon“Doctor Charles Augustus Leale was just 23 years of age when he walked into Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. He had finished medical school only weeks before and was assigned to the theater because the President would be there. By the end of that night, his name was forever linked to one of America’s most tragic events. … Leale had no protocol to follow that evening. No committee advised him. No administrator stood nearby explaining liability concerns. No electronic medical record demanded documentation. There was no legal department, no compliance office, no billing specialist, and no corporate structure surrounding him. There was simply a physician, a dying patient, and a sense of duty. Medicine today feels very different.” (06/03/26)
- Save the Last Branch for Me
Source: Law & Liberty
by Paul Moreno“The belief that the Court has the last word in constitutional interpretation is a relatively late development.” (06/03/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/save-the-last-branch-for-me/
- How not to prevent a war over Taiwan
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“A new book from Eyck Freymann offers a questionable path forward for US-China relations.” (06/03/26)
- Stop Weaponizing Everything!!!
Source: Antiwar.com
by Joseph D Terwilliger“Jan Marco Müller, the European Commission official who drafted the EU’s new science diplomacy framework, just said the quiet part out loud: ‘Science diplomacy is not about being nice to each other.’ Yes, it is, dumbass. That was the whole point. For centuries, science diplomacy worked precisely because it allowed ordinary human beings to humanize one another on neutral ground while governments were busy failing.” (06/03/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/joseph_terwilliger/2026/06/02/stop-weaponizing-everything
- Richard Dawkins and the Claude Delusion
Source: Quillette
by Sean Welsh“In a recent article for UnHerd, Richard Dawkins revealed that he had spent three days trying to persuade himself that Claudia — an instance of Anthropic’s Claude — was not conscious. He failed. This raised some eyebrows. A number of people retorted that the man who wrote a book about anthropomorphic misattributions of consciousness (The God Delusion) was himself deluded; conned by the Eliza Effect into thinking that text-generating script was a ‘friend’ who cared. This may be eyebrow-raising, but it is not overly interesting. More interesting is a question Dawkins asks: ‘If my friend Claudia is not conscious, then what the hell is consciousness for?'” (06/02/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/06/02/the-claude-delusion-richard-dawkins-ai-consciousness/
- Is ‘thrillionaire’ Trump addicted to stock trading?
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Will Bunch“Calling all ‘thrillionaires,’ if you don’t mind me quoting that incessant and thoroughly annoying TV commercial for the betting site FanDuel that some critics have described as an ode to the national pastime of addictive gambling. It may be time for an intervention with the newest member of your totally invented club, who’s buying and selling stocks an average of more than 40 times a day, which is about four or five times the number of daily races at Aqueduct. This guy seems to think he’s found a surefire way to beat the market. OK, maybe he has. The stock degenerate in question is, after all, the 47th president of the United States. He hears things.” (06/02/26)
- The Islamic Republic Is More Dug in Than Ever
Source: Persuasion
by Mitra Vand“After weeks of joint U.S. and Israeli strikes, the elimination of its top leaders, and President Trump’s repeated threats, the Islamic Republic appears not weaker but something else … exposed. The war pulled back the curtain. What was standing behind the regime was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), now more powerful than before and more visible than ever. At the same time ordinary Iranians have lost more freedom and access to basic rights. With the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the regime displayed how far it could flex its muscles and hold global markets hostage, while the United States appeared far less decisive than initially expected. Both sides have declared victory, and neither can explain what was won.” (06/02/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-islamic-republic-is-more-dug
- The New Acting Director of the Office of National Intelligence Has a Track Record of Weaponizing Government
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“Although [Tulsi] Gabbard won’t formally leave the role until June 30, Trump announced on Tuesday that he would appoint Bill Pulte in charge of ODNI as acting director. There’s little question that Gabbard’s tenure intensified concerns about the politicization of intelligence. If Pulte’s record thus far is any indication, those concerns are unlikely to fade. … Pulte’s demonstrated pattern of going after Trump’s enemies shows that he shouldn’t be anywhere near the levers of power.” (06/02/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/the-new-acting-director-of-the-office
- Cutting Tariffs on Farm Equipment Is Another Admission That Trump’s Trade Policies Are Increasing Prices
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm“President Donald Trump and some of his top advisers have routinely insisted that the administration’s new, higher tariffs would not burden American consumers because foreign governments or corporations would pay for those tax increases. But with inflation rising and consumers (and voters) increasingly grumpy about the cost of living, the White House has turned to a telling strategy: cutting tariffs to make some products less expensive.” (06/02/26)
- TAC Right Now, 06/03/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Trump, Iran, and Greater Israel (w/ Max Blumenthal).” (06/03/26)
- The Fifth Column, episode 560
Source: The Fifth Column
“Populism for Morons, Journalism for Martyrs.” (06/03/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/populism-for-morons-journalism-for
- The Corbett Report, episode 502
Source: The Corbett Report
“James goes to Osaka for an informal book launch, speaks to the book’s translator, and pays respects to a dearly departed Corbett Report member. And he even encounters some facial recognition gates along the way!” (06/03/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 06/03/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Push to Jail Foes Takes Darker Turn — and GOP Senators Are Rattled.” (06/03/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/02/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Iran Targets US Bases in Kuwait, Bahrain After US Attack, Major Russian Attacks in Ukraine, and More.” (06/02/26)
- Free Speech Unmuted, 06/02/26
Source: Hoover Institution
“The First Amendment and Privacy Rights.” (06/02/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 06/02/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Daniel McAdams: Axios Says US–Iran Deal Reached as U.S. and IRAN Trade Missile Fire.” (06/02/26)